Its all good RockHound, I was just curious to see if I was the only one.
To the OP, I am sorry your thread was cluttered in this way, but this type of thread always brings up these results. ALWAYS. But to your original question, if I were you I would just bash the hell out of it and upgrade as you break the parts. Thats really the only good way to bulletproof any rig out there. Have fun bro, I hope you enjoy that thing, even though I have to admit that I'm an HPI fan boy as well. Kind of hard not to be when the Savage I have owned has been faithfully keeping me entertained for the last 8 years and Blitz keeps me at the front of the pack on race day. My MT2 18SS was a pleasure to own as well, but I sold it to make room for an OFNA Hyper 7! I really wished there was a race class for 1/10 AWD stadium trucks..